User reviews

Having been sent down the track The Doctor is saved by George Stevenson, his assistant Luke is mesmerised by The Master and placed under his control. There is an effort to cancel the upcoming meeting of Stephenson, Davy, Faraday and the other geniuses, but the Master intercedes to make sure it occurs, he tries convincing the Rani to share his vision, of harnessing their genius in order to turn the Earth into a devastating power. The Rani agrees the Doctor is a threat, and sets about dealing with him, laying traps in the wood. In turn The Doctor sets a trap..

I think the lack of too many special effects helps, some of the effects during this period in the show's history were not great. Sadly the effects we get here are a little iffy, the trees were okayish, but the Tyrannosaurus was not good, a la Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

Kate O'Mara was great, and looks rather incredible too, soon after this she joined Dynasty. The Rani was a much better foe then the Master in this story, he was rather useless. The only person ever to kick The Master! Such a shame her only other story would be Time and The Rani. Even her TARDIS looks good, it's a really cool set.

It's another interesting episode, the setting is brilliant, The Master is underused, but The Rani proved an excellent foe. Peri had way more to do then in the first part, much less arguing and squabbling too. Very good 7/10

At this point. Michael Grade, controller of BBC1 back in 1985 probably hoped both the Tardis and Colin Baker fell down the mine pit for good.

The Doctor is effectively go karting to his doom. Luckily George Stephenson is on hand to save him from the actions of the unruly miners.

As the Doctor warns Stephenson about his planned a meeting of great scientific and engineering minds. The Master has got Luke Ward under mind control. Hoping young Luke would lure George Stephenson to the wrong path.

Only Luke succumbs to one of the Rani's land mines and gets turned into a tree.

While the Doctor booby traps the Rani's Tardis to accelerate to the outer reaches of the universe.

There is a hotchpot of a plot here. Sadly Pip and Jane Baker have written a mess, there really is no story here. It is compounded by some lousy acting from the grunting rampaging villagers. The dinosaur effects are poor.

The otherwise good atmospheric production values are little compensation.

Review of both parts:

This two-parter is another weak story during one of the poorest seasons of the show's history. There are a few positives but a lot of negatives.

The positives include the music which is nice and appropriate for the story and also the period setting is a nice idea whilst not entirely correctly represented. The new villain The Rani is a good addition to the show with Kate O'Mara very charismatic in the role. It is interesting to get a new Time Lord/Lady and another TARDIS. The character is interesting too because she is not 1 dimensional, she is intelligent and pursues science without much conscience but without being a pure evil villain. Her disdainful interaction with the Master adds another dynamic as well as her clash with the Doctor. Unfortunately this promising scenario is largely wasted due to the silliness of the story and the largely lame dialogue. Anthony Ainley hams it up as the Master and with the Rani similarly turned into a panto villain by various unimpressive scenes and nonsensical plot points it all falls apart.

Colin Baker continues to be a very disappointing characterisation of the Doctor. He at least shows moments of compassion here but mostly is still egotistical, rude and conceited. Having a hero who is neither heroic nor in any way endearing is a real minus. Peri is an extremely weak companion with poor acting and an annoying personality which alongside the grating brashness of the 6th Doctor means there is little to hook me into the underwhelming story.

On top of all that the production overall has an embarrassingly pantomime feel with some dodgy acting, cringeworthy, shoddy effects such as the tree person and the dinosaur and some bad fight scenes and set pieces. The supposed exciting action scenes include the Docot hanging down an old mineshaft while being whacked with polystyrene logs and whizzing down a hill while strapped to a trolley. It is pretty pathetic sadly.

A couple of charming guest performances such as Terence Alexander and Gawn Grainger as well as the 3 timelord dynamic, the industrial revolution period setting and the nice music are highlights amongst the mostly unimpressive adventure.

Episode 1 - 5/10, Episode 2 - 3.5/10, Overall - 4.25/10